Jason is about to be on a roll. In addition to this article and then Part II in the works, he's also slated to do some course reviews, a new contest as well as some other ideas for his column. I think I have him jammed for at least the next year. Should be fun.

Speaking of fun, if you can, catch Jason at DerbyCon speaking on this very topic of doxing.

For those of us following or taking part in the various hacktivist activities happening around the globe on a regular basis, doxing is a regular feature. We wake up in the morning to find the personal lives of businessmen, hackers who have made target of themselves for one reason or another, government employees, and a host of others spilled out onto the Internet for the entire world to see. Doxing can be a tool for use in security testing, investigation, or research on the positive side. But it can also be a tool for humiliation, harassment, and worse on the negative side.

In the Part I of this article, we will discuss what exactly doxing is and the tools and techniques we might use to carry out such an attack. In the Part II of this article we will talk about the steps we can take to at least lessen its impact, should we find ourselves on the receiving end of such efforts.

Well written article, a good overview for those unfamiliar with the concepts.

I followed some of the well publicised doxes earlier in the year e.g. Lulzsec and UGNazi, and found them to be very useful examples of the techniques involved and how the information gathered can be expanded upon.

Also, as you mention in your article some of these inferences are entirely wrong, which has led to the wrong person getting doxed by mistake.

I don't know what you've got planned for your next contest but requiring a bit of OSINT/information reconnaissance before actually getting to the challenge or being the challenge itself could prove interesting.

Google continues to amaze me (even though they're evil) with the handy things that you can get to with their engine. I just figured out a while back that wikipedia <whatever> will get you right to the link for whatever you're searching on. Its a heck of alot faster than going through the whole route. I've found a few other things that work similarly and are a huge timesaver.